Tell me a story

[Talia]

Talia kicked off her heels the minute she reached the top of her landing ramp, palm slapping the controls to close it behind her as she moved to the comms array in the lounge, wrangling with the zipper of her dress as she did. "Wake up." she barked and the unit came to life, a holoimage flickering into existense before it. The AI was the most expensive but useful thing she had on this freighter. "Compose a message for me."

"Certainly." the dress hit the deck and she moved through the lounge into her sleeping quarters, the holoimage followed her. "I just disposed of Griff and his brainless idiots for failing to pay me what I'm due. So, for the unnecessary increase in my blood pressure and the wasted fuel to come here and meet them, whats due has doubled. See that its paid into my account. You've three days, otherwise i'm coming for your head."

"Is that all?"

"Yes." she pulled on a pair of black slacks and a tank top. Fingers worked through her hair braiding it into a loose plait that rested over her shoulder. "Send it to my last contractor."

"Done. The meeting didn't go well then. Would you like me to plot a course to the nearest space station so you can drink with less expense?"

Talia laughed. "Not yet. Got a bone to pick with someone." She began fitting her armour on piece by piece before moving back through the ship and collecting her beskad. "Track my location, just in case I need a pick up." She slid the helmet onto her belt, and a comm into her ear, the ramp descending ahead of her. "Is that likely?" The AI's voice asked in her ear and Talia smiled.

"That depends on him."

Five minute walk and she'd be at Dock 26. Five minutes to get her head level before coming face to face with the Slayer of Mandalore for the second time that evening.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

The dock had a battered but serviceable tengalir patrol boat in it. Protectors colors. By the looks of it, it was well cared for. Just old, battered, and worn. Just as the man who strode down the ramp was. His beard was trimmed and neat, oiled freshly. A comb had been drug through his hair, and his clothes were fresh, and of a much more practical nature than before. Spacers leather boots in grey with durasteel toe caps and heel irons, dark brown breeches tucked into them, a black leather belt with a hammer of hjarna stone head looped into it. And a white laborers shirt open at the neck to reveal a necklace with a battered wedding band of some sort of blue-grey metal that almost appeared to glow.

"Glad you came. Sorry about breaking the blaster, but it was that or die in a room with Ember. He's been different this time, and I couldn't suss out if he would react poorly to me dying or not. Less risk to you. But if you want to follow me, I'll lead you to my little workshop in this old heap and fix it back new for you. Hell, might even be able to squeeze a bit more power out of it. And i'll go first, so you know there are no trigger-traps or such. Or you can kill me now, if your hatred demands it."

Waiting, he cocked his head to the side and grinned sadly, looking at a woman his senses told him he could trust to hear him out beyond her hatred.

"I understand, and deserve the hatred. I would hate me in your spot. But I sense you can be trusted to hear me out, and know the truth of things before you end my life. If you still wish to. I won't fight you further. Nor will I disable another gun. You placed your trust coming this far, so I give you mine you will hear me out."

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Talia eyed him with suspicion as he spoke, weighing his words and her emotions equally. "You broke my home and my people." she replied, without malice, unhooking the blaster from her thigh and stepping forward to hand it to him. "What's a blaster after that?" It might have been a joke, it was hard to tell by her deadpan expression. She cast her eyes over the ship behind him, a slight smile tugging at her features as she recognised the colours.

A reminder of days when they'd been united as a people. Seemed a long way away now, and the root cause? The pebble that created a tidal wave of ripples? She looked back at Ijaat and pursed her lips, nodding for him to lead the way and following a pace behind him. "I fought alongside Monroe in the Civil War, seems only fair I give you the time of day to speak your piece. Not that any speech she made was anything worth listening too..."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Turning his back without worry, he walked in after taking the blaster in weathered, rough hands of a worker and calluses on the fingers of a decades old swordsman. A gait spoke to the same, with an odd stiffness in his right shoulder, and a faint whirr of cybernetics when his left arm moved. A few moments of walking in the ship and they came to a communal lodge, which had a wall packed with tools and instruments. Ijaat gestured to a couch with battered red cushions and sat on a work stool near the bench, depositing the blaster down and plopping on a monocole magnifier with several armature lenses. He gazed, selecting quickly, and picked up fine hand tools, beginning to work on opening the blaster up with disturbing quickness.

"It started on Coruscant, before my first death. I had a Vong biot implanted in me by the Wrath of the Dark Lord of the One Sith. It and some cybernetics let me fuse an Artificial Intelligence I had developed with Kaminoans, to my brain. I say these things to let you know i'm not crazy when I say I helped lead a Galactic Alliance raid on Coruscant, and used these abilities to take control of the Orbital Defense Guns and level the Sith Pyramid. The resulting fusion broke my mind. I spent months in seclusion as a guest of the Rekali's. And more studying things, hiding, and eventually dieing. But the scars went deeper than my body. The deaths left me more and more unstable each time. And, eventually... Paranoia and fear led me to what I did to our planet. A neti, and several others, helped me find my peace, and heal my mind finally. And now... I'm just seeking to pay back the debt my actions caused, before I die."

As he spoke, he worked, and eventually with a snick of closing metal, he handed the blaster back to Talia.

"Should shoot better than ever"

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Another broken mind. At least this one openly recognised it. Mia hadn't, but they'd all known she was. They also all silently agreed to deal with her once they'd defeated Ra...

Eyes fluttered closed, memory flickered behind her eyelids, her brothers face full of fury charging towards her. The collective sigh of defeat and the cries of outrage and Mia was hauled through the streets. She hadn't deserved that death, it was undignified and done in blatant disregard for what she'd done for her people before Velok. Eyes opened as the soft snick of metal and she took the blaster in her hand but didn't look at it. Her green eyes were boring into Ijaat.

"Half my clan was killed in the earthquakes that shattered out homestead. My parents included. I had to cut my brothers leg off to free him from the wreckage. The cyber replacement we managed to get him caused him nothing but agony and all he wanted was to kill, so when Ra and Mia both rose up and the war began, he joined Ra." she gave a soft bitter chuckle "I was always the better fighter..." she looked down at the blaster, thumb running along its body. If she let herself, she could feel each crashing blow of their beskads, feel the warmth of his blood as she slid a knife under his guard and into his armpit.

She made herself look back at him. "How will you repay that?"

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

There was little to no gesture, or action from the man. A simple sigh, and a returned look into her eyes, full of pain, regret, and hope. Then he spoke.

"I can't. But I can try until the end."

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Talia's held tilted to oneside at his response, fingers curling round the blaster proper. "No," she agreed, "You can't."

The weapon levelled at his thigh and she squeezed the trigger.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk​

There was the pain. It blossomed and bloomed. Agony really. It had hit his left leg. The one that had always pained him. Psychosomatic or not, the pain had carried through rebirth. Inwardly, he reeled and raged for the briefest of moments. Outwardly, his face grimaced, and he reached over to his armor rack, slow as he could, and pulled out a med pac from the harness hanging on a peg. Calmly he threw it on the bench, opened it, pulled a syrette of pain meds and jabbed it right neck to the wound as he ripped open his breeches to expose the wound. Now he grimaced, muttering.

"Karking hate needles. I really do."

Having spoken, his face now contorted in a grimace of pain, hissing breath a little in through bared teeth as he slapped another syrette to stick into the flesh, pulling the plunger to release a topical numbing agent. Swiftly, he shoved a bacta patch over it and began applying a dressing. Obviously, he was used to seeing wounds and dressing them. And likely suffering and causing them.

"Wife was a physician. Used to help her when I wasn't at the forge. She taught me what was the best stuff to put into a med pac. Then the Wrath, at that point just a random Sith Lord, kidnapped her and our children. I assumed them dead. Found out later he was my uncle, so there is that..."

Tapping his temple with a bloodied finger as he wrapped a pressure band around the awkward but efficient dressing in the outer corner of his thigh, he nodded.

"I really can not fix or make up for it. But I can make my every action and very purpose is dedicated to such. And I intend to. If you, and others, will allow it."

Here he grimaced again.

"Couldn't have winged the ass cheek? Thigh shots are a karking painful target ma'am...Mind reaching under that far cushion? Should be a flask of my tihaar. Feel free to try some if you have a taste. Fruit-based, rather than grain.

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

A satisfied smile spread over her face and she looked down at the blaster, impressed with his handiwork, not that she'd say as much to him. She slipped it back into its holster.

"No, I think a thigh shot was perfect. Nowhere near close to the pain of cutting your own brother down in battle, that much I can tell you." She reached under the cushion as instructed and pulled out the flask. "What we allow doesn't matter anymore, we're at war. So long as the Empire stands strong and they lock up Force Users, the mandalorians will never be whole again." She unscrewed the cap as she spoke and sniffed it before taking a swig and reaching to hand it to him.

"You want to fix things? Then you fight. That I can allow. Let me shoot you a couple more times too, because that felt good." She managed a smile. "Name's Talia by the way."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"I can promise I will fight such that they will wish I had never grasped a blade or gun. And I will allow you to shoot me as often as you like, provided it is on the stun setting except for once every other month."

Reaching out, he grasped the flask and grinned, a flicker of a grimace as the movement pulled at the wound, but tipped it back and took a healthy swig.

"Pleasure to meet you, Talia. Fortune favor you and yours. And peace favor you brother. I will remember the pain I caused you, and him, perhaps more keenly than others. And I will not forgive myself, or forget it."

The flask got extended back, in a goodwill gesture, if she would take it.

"Tempt you again? I won't be attacking you in this shape, doped and wounded and soon to be inebriated. Figured perhaps I can get to know someone with the most guts i've ever seen outside of my own wife when I had tracked mud into her clinic. She terrified me. Adumarian by blood, mando'karla to the core though. I was apprenticed to her father as a swordsman retainer for a while. He offered me my pick of his armory. I chose her hand. The meaning was not lost, and I gained a wife and a fine sword I still never use to this day, because he named it after her."


[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

"Nu kyr'adyc," she said sofly reaching to accept the flask. "Shi taab'echaaj'la." She'd nothing to fear from Ijaat, she knew that without his declaration. The compliment wasn't lost on her either.

"Seems like a waste of a good weapon, surely she'd be better honoured if you used it?"

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Eyes that had seen far, far too much glazed with memory and pain, and for a split second that careful image of a hardened warrior, the facade of War incarnate, slipped. His finger lightly tapped against a signet with the Adasca family crest on it, and sighed. On the wall, a gleaming blast sword rested in a scabbard of worshyr wood. It was clear where his eyes went as he took another, even longer pull.

"I swore I wouldn't use it on anyone but [member="Reverance"], once I found it in the wreckage of our old homestead. He told me, when I first found him, that she was alive. I don't know if I believe him, but I keep it just in case. I taught her to use one when we were dating. The blastsword, as her father taught me in my apprenticeship, is so much more than just a blade really. Very nuanced in use..."

Passing the liquor back, he shook his head, standing with a stiff grunt of an old warrior beginning to feel age. Ashin hadn't exactly made this body the deluxe model. And he supposed that he deserved that bit. But the arthritis in his shoulder killed him these days. He wondered if she had engineered the clone body to match his age and lifestyle, to remind him of his mortality. Fitting for her really, if she had.

"So I keep it, and think of her. She is the one thing I truly regret losing. The rest of it is deserved, for failing to protect her and my sons from the Sith. I would never let that mistake repeat. Never."

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Talia recognized the expression behind the facade that slipped from Ijaat's face, she averted her gaze not wanting to see. Put that maks back on, she thought, i don't want to pity you. She found the blast sword with her own eyes and found herself itching to inspect it closer. She refrained...just.

"Ah, I see. It's a revenge weapon. Its soul purpose to kill one man and to rust upon its hook." Her tone said enough about how she did not agree. She accepted the tihaar once more and leaned back in her seat.

"I've never been in love. I spend too much time travelling and enjoy what i do far too much for most people's liking. So you'll forgive my inability to empathize on your reasons for letting a good weapons go to waste. As for failing to protect people you love...well," she took a swig and passed it back to him. "Just about every mandalorian alive failed that the day you dropped the bomb."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"The number of times I have stood with my gun at my temple, and ached to pull the trigger since that day is beyond count. I don't think you understand, dear girl. You can heap all your hatred you wish on me. It will never match the self-loathing I feel. And the cowardice that I can't quite pull the trigger. That I still feel a flicker of hope I might be able to redeem myself from infamy. In another time, we might have been friends. Now, at most, I will get only pity. More than likely, restrained rage. And that is all I deserve. More than, actually. I would gladly give my life to trade for your brothers. Gladly. But I cannot. What I have done you can't even ask forgiveness for. "

For a moment, he stared at Talia, thoughtfully, and then reached behind him. Rags and tools were moved, and a battered yet whole pict frame was found, which he handed to Talia. It showed a woman similar to her in features in some areas. Flaming red hair pulled into a pony-tail, a doctor's coat on. The background was her clinic, and three males sat in front of her. One had her hair, and a serious look on his face, clinging to her left leg. Another, hair auburn and eyes blue-green like his brother, sat in Ijaat's lap. The woman's hand rested protectively on the slight of frame boy by her leg, and he gaze focused on the other two with an exasperate smile of tolerant love as they both made goofy faces at the camera. The man didn't look as he did now, except about the eyes. That same restrained lethality, but instead of tinged with sadness, there was strength and humor.

"The day I lost them, that was taken. And I lost them because of my own weakness. Just like I lost you your brother. You will never hate me as much as I hate myself. The best punishment I can think of for me is to live on."

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Talia could feel something burning in her chest as she looked down at the photo he handed her. It rose up like fire the prickled behind her eyes. She closed them thrusting the picture back at him. Those faces were already embedded in her mind the laughter and love clear as day. Anger and pity fought a battle in the pit of her stomach.

"Enough." she said softly, her voice trembled. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, drew in a breath and exhaled slowly pushing the emotion back. Or at least trying. It was still there in her grey-green eyes when she found the strength to look at him. "The reason you can't pull the trigger, is not because you area a coward, but because it is a cowards death. There's no honour in killing yourself, if you are going to die, at least die at the hands of someone who's life you ruined. You can stop with the self pity too, I don't care for it, or your woe is me tale. I. Don't. Care."

Hot tears, swelled in her eyes and she blinked against them. "I didn't lose my brother. I murdered him." The words though quiet reverberated through the force, fury and despair travelled in their wake.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"Hardly pity. But tell yourself what you must, to keep hating me. Truth is, we are all mortals. I sinned more than most, but I sinned. As for your brother, and what came of you and he... I..."

Here he stopped, and looked at what was undoubtedly a woman supremely capable in battle broken and weeping. And he drew the mythosaur tusk dagger he and a former ally had made together, handing her the ceremonial weapon hilt first. There wasn't anything to, or that he could say. Just hit a clasp on his armor, the vest falling off with a clatter of plates to expose his torso, arms wide, waiting.

If anyone in the Galaxy had a right to his life, it was her. And he wouldn't dispute that. It wasn't an act of pity or resignation. It was the purest form of honoring her pain and shaming his misdeed and infamy that any warrior could make. He had done so with his former pupil, and the Sith loving hut'uun couldn't even kill him like a real mando'ad. But he would take the blow if she wished. And if she kept the dagger, he was swore to her. The careworn symbol of the True Mandalorians intermeshed with Clan Mereel on the pommel of that knife made the implications clear.

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

The power of the gesture was not lost on Talia, it swept over her, snatching the wind from her sails, breath catching in her throat. She wept silently, fingers coiling about the hilt, the clatter of his armour ringing in her ears. The beast that reared within, the one who had screamed her fury and pain to the battlefield when Sintas died in her arms, his face contorted with hatred. She stared down at the blade for a long minute, taking in the detail of the hilt.

Suddenly she was ten years old, a furious child beating a boy bloody in a blind rage for insulting her families honour, her father had hauled her off, dragged her away from them all despite her screams, fingers clawing to finish the job. It had taken a good hour for her to calm down enough to hear what he had to say. But he had been patient, oh so patient with the orphan he had adopted. Talia drew a deep shuddering breath trying to regain some control over the tidal wave that washed over her.

"I live by one rule, in honour of an old man who gave an angry child a roof over her head. I do not kill for revenge, nor in anger." She looked up at him then. "Were I anyone else..." she gave a watery chuckle that held no real joy and shook her head, a hand moved to wipe her face, though it seemed a wasted effort at this point. "I'm not going to kill you, [member="Ijaat Mereel"]. Nor will anyone else so long as i'm standing, unless it is your wish. Haat, ijaa, haa'it."

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Briefly, he nodded, and produce from somewhere a soften cotton cloth. White, an unused, and just barely oversized to be a handkerchief. It was a lapping clothing for polishing, but it had never been used, and he offered her the cloth without any amusement or teasing. Where she was now? He had been in a similar situation, and it was not on he envied her. So he did what he wished he had someone there for him to do. Simply be there.

For the moment, he left the cloth on her knee, and took a swig of the tihaar then smiled at her. It was genuine, and relieved.

"I will go as you say. Fight when you say to fight. Sheath when you say sheath. My life before yours. Duty before death or dishonor. Haat, ijaa, haa'it"

It was an old oath, and very binding for one who took such so seriously. And as he said it, the Force didn't so much surge, as it did seem to swell and pulse, then fade to a normal quiet feeling. Now he looked at her, smiling faintly.

"I will never ask forgiveness, but it will be my honor to serve, and my honor to be oathed to you. Once my clan rescued yours from a bloody path of mistakes. Mayhaps this time Fett will rescue Mereel, eh?"

[member="Talia Fett"]

 

[Talia]

Talia slid the blade into her boot. She'd need a sheath for it, but for now it could stay there. The makeshift handkerchief was a welcome gesture and she accepted it gladly, burying her face in it for a moment and taking several calming breaths, seeking to pull her emotions back under control. This had never been her plan, but then she'd not really had one anyway. Now? Now she sat next to a man who had started the tidal wave that shattered her kin, with an oath sworn between them.

The action, once known would land a hefty price on her head. Anyone else might have found that worrisome, but it simply made her smirk internally. She emerged with a dry face, reflecting the smile back at Ijaat. This wasn't closure, she'd doubt she'd even get anywhere close to that, but it was a start. People on Mandalore screamed for his death, but if he believed he could do something to help heal the wound? Who was she really to deny that opportunity to him.

"Maybe." she said reaching to pluck the flask of tihaar from his hands and taking a swig before handing it back, leaning into the chair and closing her eyes briefly. "We've both got red in our ledgers. I'm not quite ready to face mine, but i'll help you with yours. Now though?" she opened her eyes. "Now I want to get so drunk I can't remember my own name."

[member="Ijaat Mereel"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmgOrhELXs

He whistled, and what looked like a forging apprentice merged with an Astromech droid rumbled it. It was scored with carbon all over, dented and scratched, and bizarrely enough the duraplast platings were branded as if he too were wearing Protectors plate colors. Ijaat nodded to the thing, slapping it's shoulder.

"Talia, this is Geoff. My Artificial Intelligence, in a little chasis I cooked up for him. Geoff, this lady is our guest. We wish to drink until we forget our fathers names after we forget our own. Bring the Corellian Bourbons, the Denon Scotch, and as much of the Corellian beer as you can. Lock the ship down after loading it, and put all defenses to your control. And start some music in here."

The droid cocked a head on a reinforced neck that telescoped to mimic a curt nod, and the voice came out almost cultured and british, if this Galaxy had Brits anyway.

"Very well sir. Shall I also lay out the supplies for intravenous hydration for the morning after? And will the young Miss Fett be sharing your room, or shall I prepare the guests quarters this time?"

Sputtering mid-drink of beer, Ijaat threw a spanner at the retreating droid/A.I. and muttered darkly about erratic behavior and rampancy in the coding, and the thing needing a memory wipe or 're-orient'. But he said nothing yet because he wasn't quite sure yet how to respond as the music started.

[member="Talia Fett"]